'Pharma Bro' Hires Jay-Z's Lawyer
In advance of Martin Shkreli's courtroom appearance on Wednesday and congressional hearing on Thursday, he replaced his legal team with lawyer Benjamin Brafman, whose former clients include Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Sean Combs, Michael Jackson, Plaxico Burress and Jay-Z, writes Fortune. (Shkreli's previous lawyer was Arnold & Porter's Marcus Asner.)
"He's probably the best lawyer in the world," USA Today reports Shkreli saying. Brafman is "the best courtroom lawyer [The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin] has ever witnessed," according to a 2011 profile of Brafman in NYU Law Magazine.
Shkreli faces a securities fraud indictment for allegedly defrauding investors of hedge fund MSMB Capital Management, and repaying them with $11M from biopharma company Retrophin—to which he's pleaded not guilty.
Shkreli's appearance before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday was about drug pricing and his increase of a Turing Pharmaceutical drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750. (According to Reuters, the pharma company is also being investigated by the FTC and NY AG for possible antitrust violations.)
During his appearance on the Hill on Thursday, Shkreli pleaded the Fifth and smiled, yawned, or twiddled a pencil rather than answer questions, though he later tweeted that the lawmakers were "imbeciles." Reuters reports that Brafman asked to address the committee, but Chairman Jason Chaffetz denied his request. After the hearing, Brafman said that Shkreli's behavior was due to "nervous energy."[Fortune]
